Concrete Angel
by redheadwicca
Summary: When George asks Derek to take Marti to school, Derek discovers something he could never imagine. Dasey eventually. About Derek and Casey and Marti.AU
1. Marti

Chapter 1: She walks to school with a lunch she packed

Chapter 1: She walks to school with a lunch she packed

"Edwin! Lizzie" Come on! We're gonna be late"

"Casey! Get out of the bathroom!"

"Edwin, where's my jacket?"

"On the couch"

"I'm leaving! If I don't go now, I'm going to be late. Since SOMEONE refuses to drive me"

SLAM.

"Marti! Hurry up! I can't afford to be late today!'

"Coming Daddy!"

SLAM. SLAM.

Derek drank his orange juice as he watched the chaos around him.

"Edwin! Lizzie! NOW!"

SLAM.

The front door slammed again this time as Nora, Edwin and Lizzie headed out leaving just Derek, George and Marti in the house.

"Marti! Marti! Let's GO!"

"I'm coming daddy!"

Derek rinsed out his glass as he watched the daily proceedings with semi-interest.

"Derek" his father called "I'm late for an important case and so I need you to take Marti to pre-school."

"But…"

"Derek" George said sternly, his voice leaving no room for argument.

"Fine, fine" Derek grumbled as he headed up the stairs to gather up Marti.

SLAM.

The door clanged as George followed the others out and headed to work.

"Smarti?" Derek coaxed as he headed into her room, "Smarti it's time for school."

"I'm coming Derek" she squeaked. Derek opened the door and what he saw made him stop in shock. There was Marti, running around the room in a frantic tizz that was very unlike her usual attitude.

"Smarti?" Derek asked confused, "What are you doing?"

She was impeccably dressed in a way Derek realized with a start she had often been over the past weeks, he just hadn't realized. Her shoes were tied though her fingertips were red with the effort of tying them all by herself. Her face was clean but the skin around her mouth was scrubbed red as if she had spent ten minutes scrubbing off non-existent dirt. Her hair was brushed back, neatly laying flat against her head, odd for Marti or any six year old.

As Derek watched she stumbled around her room trying to make her bed; a difficult task as she was not tall enough to reach all the way up across the middle of the bed. Her room looked as though she had hurriedly thrown it together, with toys peaking out from under the bed and socks hanging out of the drawers. And as she struggled with the bedspread, Derek couldn't help but think how unlike his Smarti the entire room was.

"Smarti, c'mon Smarti." Derek tried to wheedle her out of finishing her hurried cleaning job. "We gotta go to school."

"No!" she screamed, "It's not clean yet."

"Marti, it's ok-ay!" groaned Derek, unable to stop himself from wondering if this was Casey's influence. They were going to be SO late. "You can finish cleaning your room when you get home."

As he spoke, he leaned over to help her pick up the bedspread and lay it flat on the bed.

"No Derek." She whined, "If it's not clean when Daddy gets home I'll be in trouble and then he'll be mad."

Derek plucked the pillow out of her hands and placed it next to the others on the bed. "Smarti, we need to go." He commanded as he picked her up to carry downstairs.

And that's when it happened. As Derek's hands grabbed her arms she screamed louder than Derek had ever heard. She squirmed out of his arms and threw herself cowering into a corner across the room.

Derek froze. This was new.

"Smarti?" he spoke softly trying to alleviate whatever fear was driving her.

"Smarti? What's wrong? It's me, your Smerek. I'm not going to hurt you. What's wrong?" While speaking he slowly moved ever closer until he was only a few feet away from her huddled body.

"It hurt." She whispered just loud enough for him to hear.

"What hurt?" Getting an idea, Derek slowly took her arm and rolled up her sleeve. There glaring up at him from her pale skin were dark purple bruises in the shape of fingers. The shape of a hand was tattooed all up and down her arm, as though her arm had been grabbed and held tightly multiple times by many people.

Marti's head fell and she shook out her hair, hiding from the world behind a dark impenetrable curtain.

Derek gazed slack jawed at her bruises. Carefully he dropped her arm and rolled up her other sleeve to find a pattern almost symmetrical to her other arm. He ran his hand lightly over the bruises and she whimpered as his fingers gazed the hurt. At hearing her make a noise and realize he was causing her pain, Derek snapped out of the trance he had entered upon seeing her abuse.

"Marti" Derek whispered, serious now, "Marti, who did this to you?"

Marti shook her head unwilling to answer him.

"School" she whispered after Derek repeated the question.

"School, right" he muttered, realizing that neither of them could sit there unmoving all day. The law prevented it. Suddenly a thought occurred to him.

"Smarti!" his hand tilted her chin up so their eyes met as he questioned her intently. "Did your teacher do this to you?"

Her eyes dropped from his, she shook her head in the universal gesture for no. Derek watched her closely for a minute, unable to determine if she was lying.

Well, he finally decided, until he was certain it was not her teacher doing this, there was no way in hell he was letting her go to school. Which means...

"Marti? How would you like to go to high school?"

Marti lifted her head as a smile slowly grew on her face.

"Okay Marti" Derek smiled down at the little girl holding his hand. "Welcome to Thompson High."

Derek and Marti traversed the hallways headed to Derek's locker. All the girls made it a point to wave and giggle at Marti and smile coyly at Derek in a failing attempt to grab his attention.

"Hey Marti" greeted Sam as the duo approached Derek's locker.

"Hi Sam" she snuck behind Derek's leg as she whispered out the greeting. Derek frowned down at her brown head in confusion. Sam shrugged and turned to Derek.

"Why's your sister here dude?"

Derek shrugged. "Well, she threw a fit, so by the time I got her ready there was no point in her even going so, here she is."

"Is that even allowed?"

"Dunno."

"Smerek?" Marti tugged on his pants leg.

The use of his nickname surprised him into looking down into her questioning eyes. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't heard it all morning.

"Smerek, can I go see Casey?"

"Um….sure" Derek grabbed Marti around the waist and settled her onto his hip. "Let's go find Casey."

"Who's Casey?"


	2. Casey

Disclaimer: I do not own Life With Derek

Thank you guys so much for all your reviews and comments! It totally made my day!!

Chapter 2: Nobody knows what she's holding back

"Dude, who's Casey?" Sam questioned his best friend.

"Uh, she um is this girl and um, well see…" Derek stumbled over his words. It'd been so long, George and Nora had been married for six months now and Derek had just never gotten around to telling the school that Casey, the keener new girl, and him were related. How was he going to explain this now?

"She kind of like, baby-sits for Marti sometimes."

"Oh cool." Luckily for Derek, Sam seemed to take his explanation at face value.

"Smerek come on." Marti tugged Derek off to find Casey. With a slight smile he gripped her shoulders to turn her around and head her in the opposite direction she was headed. As they rounded the corner Marti spotted Casey off at the end of the hallway talking with Emily and Noel. Derek glared as he spotted the look in Noel's eyes as he made Casey laugh with something he said. Even though he didn't acknowledge her as his step-sister didn't mean he didn't feel a little protective of her around guys.

As Marti saw her favorite step-sister turn to her locker to grab another book, her eyes lit up with joy.

"Casey! Casey!" she yanked her arm out of Derek's grasp and peeled off down the hallway as fast as her little les would take her. Within seconds she skidded to a stop just feet away from crashing into Casey and sending them both sprawling.

Derek sighed and took off at a slight jog after them. This was going to take some explanation.

Casey heard her name being called and spun around to almost run into Marti.

"Marti!" She jumped backwards into Noel in shock.

"Woah!" Noel's hands clenched her arms in an attempt to steady her and keep the both of them from falling over.

"Casey, how do you know Marti?" Having grown up next to the Venturi family, Emily knew all of them by name even if they never acknowledged her outside of driveway skirmishes and block parties.

"Marti! You can't just run off like that. If you're coming to school with me, then you have to stay with me understand?" As Derek reprimanded her for taking off down the hallway, her eyes filled up with confusion.

"But, it's Casey…?"

"Der-ek!"

Derek winced, here goes his brilliant plan to go through high school with no one knowing him and Casey were semi-related.

"Derek, why is Marti here and not at her own school?"

Derek froze. Marti didn't seem to have a problem with Casey which means he could rule her out, not that he would ever believe goody-girl Casey to be an abuser, she was far to perfect for that. Still though, with Marti he would take no chances, Trust no one, well except for Casey cause with the look she was giving him he was lucky not to already e six feet under.

"Case can I talk to you for a sec?" Not giving her a chance to answer, Derek yanked her forcefully into the nearest classroom. In the last minute before the door closed he turned around and pulled Marti through too, careful not to brush any of her bruises. As he closed the door behind Marti, Casey lashed out at him.

"Derek what in the world are you thinking? Why is Marti here? George and Nora can go to jail if Marti is not in school."

"Casey" Derek cut her off waving his hands in front of her face to get her attention.

"Case will you just give me a chance to explain?"

"Fine." Casey sat down on a desk facing Derek her hands wrapping around Marti who had snuggled into Casey's side.

"Okay so" Derek started his story, "after you left this morning Dad was struggling to get Marti out of the house, He was late for a case meeting and Marti wouldn't come downstairs. Finally he just ordered me to take Marti to school because he had to go to his meeting." Derek paced as he talked dreading the part that was coming next.

"She still wouldn't come downstairs, so I headed up to her room to see what was going on when I got up there I found Marti running frantically around her room trying desperately to clean it up."

Casey shrugged, "Unusual, but not life-threatening or anything."

"Casey six-year olds shouldn't be crying because they can't reach across the bed to pull up the bedspread. But anyways, I argued with her about it, trying to make her stop cleaning and go to school but she wouldn't listen to me. She just kept saying if the room's not clean then he'll be mad. Finally, because if we didn't leave then we'd both be late to school, I picked her up intending to carry her downstairs. But when I grabbed her arms she screamed. So I put her down and asked her what was wrong. She said that it hurt."

Now as he spoke Derek moved over to Casey and Marti and copied his actions of the morning.

"I lifted up her sleeves to try and see where I ha hurt her and this is what I found.'

Casey gasped. Marti shrugged out of Derek's hold in embarrassment.

"Marti what happened to you?" Casey whispered.

"There's exactly the same on her other arm" Derek finished. "She won't tell me who did it and until I know for sure who's doing this to my Marti, she's not going back to school."

"Right of course." Casey agreed distractedly.

"Marti?" she asked, "are there any more of these bruises?"

Derek inhaled, he had never even thought of that. Slowly, hesitantly Marti shook her head yes.

With hesitant fingers, Casey lifted up Marti's shirt. There just as she had suspected were more bruises across her back and around her ribcage, bruises both new and old.

"Marti" Derek choked out, "Smarti who did this to you, you have to tell us, you can trust us."

"Can't," Marti sighed, "it's my fault anyways."

"Marti," Casey was surprised "Marti this is not your fault. Don't think that. Don't you ever think that."

"But I do bad things and then he has to punish me. He's just trying to help."

Derek moved his eyes from Marti's dejected face to Casey's tear-filled eyes.

"Marti" his throat closed up as he tried to speak. "Smarti this is not your fault okay? You've done nothing wrong. We're gonna stop this okay? Casey and I, we're going to stop this.' Derek reached his arms out to wrap Marti in a hug.

Instead of leaping into his arms though like she usually did, Marti shied away from his open arms.

"Derek," Casey hissed at him as his face fell into a mask of confusion when Marti flinched away from his hug. "Derek, maybe her abuser is a guy. Often girls that have been raped or abused by males become shy and fearful of the gender as a whole because they are unable to distinguish"

"Casey," Derek cut off her rant, " I get it okay."

"Well look on the bright side, we know it's not her kindergarten teacher."


	3. Noel

Disclaimer: I do not own life with Derek.

AN: Sorry it took me so long to get this up, I've been on a retreat with my school. I promise I'll be beter with the next chapter :

Chapter 3: Wearing the same dress she wore yesterday

"Okay" Casey said, "So it's settled. I'll take Marti to acting first because you have math and then you'll take her for P.E. because I have math and after that we have all our classes together."

"Yep." Derek opened the door to the classroom they had been holed up in and gestured to the two girls to walk out.

Outside just as they had suspected were their friends. Emily, Sheldon, Noel, Sam and Ralph all waiting for an explanation as to why the school's popular hockey captain and the keener new girl were stuck in a room together.

"Dude, what's going on?" Ralph looked confused.

Casey picked up Marti and glanced over at her friends. Emily was still in shock, Sheldon was just well, Sheldon but Noel, Noel was staring at her with such a deep-seated look of despair it made Casey's heart ache.

Casey sighed and looked over at Derek who nodded

"Well, you guys all know that I moved to London because my mom got married."

"No."

"Dude, Ralph shut up." Sam rolled his eyes at Ralph's classis idiocy.

"Well," Casey hesitated, carefully watching Noel's reaction. "My mom married his dad; Derek and I are step-siblings."

Noel exhaled in relief. And here he had thought the girl of his dreams had been going out with the guy she claimed to hate.

At Casey's announcement Emily's jaw dropped open in shock, even Sheldon looked surprised.

Derek and Casey stood next to each other in the hallway, carefully monitoring the reactions of their circle of friends.

"Sam, you look like a goldfish." It was Marti who broke the silence.

At Marti's remark, the whole gang burst out laughing.

"Well, that was a surprise," Emily giggled.

Casey smiled relieved, "There was a slight emergency at home and Derek wasn't able to get Marti to kindergarten so that's why she's here."

She smiled down at the girl on her hip before lifting her eyes to meet Noel's. "She's going to come to acting with us."

"Cool." Noel grinned, "Hi Marti. I'm Noel." He offered his hand for her to shake. After a quick glance at Casey who nodded encouragingly Marti hesitantly shook his hand.

Derek looked around; they were going to be late to class.

"Case," he touched her shoulder to get her attention, "Case we should probably get to class."

"Right, of course." She turned and half-smiled at him.

Derek smiled and bent down until he was face-to-face with Marti.

"I'll see you later Smarti?"

Marti's face brightened with a smile but she flinched away from Derek's close proximity.

Derek's face fell and he looked up into Casey's apologetic eyes.

Derek couldn't bear to see the hurt in Casey's eyes. She was hurting for him. Derek forced a rueful smile onto his face and called out to Sam and Sheldon.

"Come on guys, we gotta get to Math."

As the group parted ways, Casey and Noel headed towards the cafeteria for acting class.

"So," Noel started talking as they took their seats in the back of the cafeteria. "You didn't tell me you had a step-brother and that it was Derek." Noel glared at Casey, clearly hurt.

Casey sighed, she really should have told Noel, he was her best friend. They had met a couple of months ago, her second month at Thompson High School. While she loved Emily, her constant talk of Derek really irked Casey so that's how she and Noel had become best friends.

But she really couldn't have told Noel. On her first day of high school, Derek had knocked on her door early in the morning. It was the only time he had ever knocked. He had asked her to keep it quiet at school that they were step-siblings. At first she had been hurt and angry that he didn't want people to know they were related. But as she had looked into his pleading eyes, she had seen that this was something that was very important to him. And so, irrationally, she had agreed.

"Noel, I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry. I would have told you if I could."

Casey didn't know if she was lying or not. Sure she was sorry that she had hurt Noel, but she would never have backed out on her promise to Derek, not when she knew it was that important to him.

"Derek asked me not to tell and before I knew it I had sort of forgotten that you didn't know about the whole thing." She pleaded.

Noel smiled as he turned to face a worried Casey.

"It's okay Casey. Really it is. I was relieved actually. At first I thought you and Derek were, you know."

Casey's eyes almost bugged out of her head and she immediately turned to make sure Marti hadn't heard what Noel had said. Luckily for her Marti was paying close attention to the lecture on how to make animal noises. It was clown week.

Casey turned back to Noel, "Noel! How could you ever think that! That's just ew" Casey shuddered. No one had ever suggested that idea before. Her and Derek? They fought all the time, how could it ever work?

"Good." Noel hesitantly reached down and laid his arm across the back of her chair.

When she felt his hand brush her shoulder Casey froze and slowly turned her head to stare at Noel.

"Casey," Noel smiled at her. "Will you go out with me this Friday?"

Casey sighed. She looked over at Marti who was listening intently, looking so innocent. She knew that there would be very few dates in her future until they worked this out. And even then, Casey knew that while she loved Noel—he was her best friend and seems to understand her better than anyone else—she knew she wasn't in love with him or even in like with him.

"Noel" she said his name apologetically, "Noel, I'm sorry."

He quickly removed his arm from the back of her chair.

"No, it's okay, I knew there wasn't much of a chance but I thought, I mean I had to try."

Awkwardly, Casey asked, "Friends?"

"Of course" Noel replied, "I wouldn't have it any other way."

Casey smiled up at him.

Noel leaned around Casey to smile at Marti.

"So Marti," he said, "how do you like high school so far?"

As Noel leaned over to talk to her, Marti clutched Casey's hand so tightly Casey moaned in pain. She climbed into Casey's lap, positioning Casey's arms to hold her protectively before answering Noel, "its okay."

Marti smiled up at Casey as if to say, I'm trying. Casey smiled back proudly.

The three of them conversed in low tones all period.


	4. George

Disclaimer: I do not own Life with Derek

A/N: I would just like to thank all of my lovely lovely beautiful amazing incredible fantastic reviewers. You guys make me keep writing this story! Really you are all incredible and I love you all. Sorry this took so long. This hardest chapter for me to write so far so I hope you like it. The first three just kind of came out I sat down and wrote all of them in about three hours. This one I actually had to think about. So, again I hope you like it.

Chapter 4: She hides the bruises with the linen and lace

Derek sighed as he waited outside of Casey's acting class. He didn't know if telling Casey was a good idea. He did not want anyone else to know that Marti was being abused. What if she told someone else? He knew she and Noel were close.

He looked up and there she was walking with Noel, her backpack on one arm and Marti on the other.

"Casey," he called out. Casey turned and she saw him a smile lit up her face.

"Look Marti," she whispered, "its Derek."

Marti smiled but clutched Casey's hand tight.

"Hey Smarti!" Derek grinned as he walked up to them dropping down beside her.

Marti flashed a quick smile but then dropped her head to stare intently at the floor.

" Come on Marti, time to go to class." Derek reached out and took Marti's hand.

She froze.

"Marti" Casey knelt down by the little girl trying to reassure her. "Marti it's ok. It's just Derek. It's gonna be ok. Trust me."

Ever so slowly Marti raised her head to look at Derek. Finally after several seconds of intense staring she nodded her head in the universal gesture for okay.

"I'll be right here," Casey said. "When you get out of P.E. I'll be right here waiting for you." Casey kissed the little girl on the forehead before heading to math with Emily.

"Casey, come on!" They had made it through the rest of the day with no mishaps other than the whole Marti couldn't stand to be near him thing, and now Derek was ready to go home. But Marti seemed intent on lingering, talking to as many people wanted to fawn over Derek Venturi's baby sister as possible.

"Come on Marti." Casey, who as standing nearby finishing up her conversation with Noel called, "Time to get home. Bye Noel!"

She waded through the crowd until she was able to pick Marti up and carry her out.

"Finally women" Derek was tired and angry and wanted to get home so they could start to figure this out and not have to deal with keeping up pretenses like at school.

Derek drove silently through the streets his thoughts on the long events of the day. He could not believe it had only been that morning that he had gone up to Marti's room to find her cleaning.

Derek parked the car in the garage and opened his door to get out of the car. Casey reached over and picked up Marti before climbing out herself.

"You ready?" she asked.

"Hmm" Derek nodded his head non-committedly.

Taking a deep breath the three walked through the front door. Locking around they were shocked.

Nothing was different. Didn't the McDonald-Venturi household know that the world had fallen apart? To Derek and Casey it felt as though the world had been ripped apart at the seams but it hadn't. Nothing was wrong. Nothing was different.

Edwin and Lizzie were playing video games, Nora was coming down the stairs balancing a laundry basket on her hip and George was in the kitchen attempting to cook something for dinner.

"There you are." Nora glared as she noticed the three kids standing in front of the door.

"What has taken you this long to get home?"

"Well uh, "Casey opened her mouth and then closed it again, looking to Derek for help, unsure of what to say.

"We uh needed to talk to some teachers."

"With Marti?"

"Yea," George entered the conversation walking out of the kitchen. " I got a very interesting phone call this morning." He wiped his hands on a towel. "From Marti's kindergarten teacher. Saying she never came to school this morning." As he spoke, George's voice slowly rose until he was yelling at Derek.

"Derek Venturi you can not just DECIDE when Marti goes to school. Marti has to go to school. It is the LAW. Nora and I can go to JAIL if she's out of school. I asked you to take her to school Derek. NOT go gallivanting all about town.

Derek's face grew red with anger.

"Dad, do you have to any idea? Do you really want to know why I didn't take to Marti to school today? DO you?" Derek screamed back.

"Yea actually I do!"

"Fine I didn't take Marti to school today because OWW!" Derek's rant was cur off by Casey's foot slamming down on his.

"What Derek's trying to say," Casey effortlessly cut in, "Marti was, um, uh, crying this morning so Derek thought he'd cheer her up by taking her to school. That and he couldn't remember how to get to Marti's kindergarten." She finished her spiel with a frown at he boy standing next to her, though her eyes shone with an apology.

"Derek is that true?" Nora said disappointedly.

"You FORGOT where your sister's school was?" George yelled.

"Yeah" Casey answered for him. "And because he was late for school we have to work on a project together. So yell at him later we have a paper to write."

Casey hooked her arm though Derek's and dragged him up the stairs scooping up Marti as she marched into her room and locked the door.

As they climbed the stairs Edwin and Lizzie looked at each other slipping round their parent's gaping mouths and snuck into the games closet.

George and Nora were left standing staring up the staircase at their children's retreating backs.

"That boy! How dare he!" George huffed and stared to stomp up the stairs.

"George, George" Nora grabbed his arm. "Come on, you can talk to him later. Let's just calm down. Besides I get the feeling Casey's already chewed up out today."

"What the hell Case? Derek demanded once Casey had successfully locked the three of them inside her room. "Why didn't you let me tell him? He could have stopped this!"

Simply because you were too involved in your little 'disagreement' to notice Marti kind of froze as soon as George walked into the room." Casey shot back angrily.

Derek stilled, his eyes flicking to Marti sitting with Sir Monks-a-lot against Casey's pillow. He turned back to Casey, angry with her implications.

She sighed in frustration. "Look Derek, I'm just saying is all. She was really scared when he walked in. And then when you two started yelling…. she was really really panicked Derek. Petrified." Casey pleaded with him.

"My DAD" Derek whispered violently but the sound carried loudly across the room," My DAD does not abuse his children. You might as well say I'M abusing Marti."

Casey flinched.

Derek glared and stalked out of Casey's room slamming the door to his own.

Casey sighed and ran a hand through her hair. Dejectedly she dropped onto the bed beside Marti.

"Casey?" Marti said, "Casey is Derek angry at me?"

Casey turned startled.

"What? Marti, honey!" She cuddled Marti into her side. "Of course not. Derek could never be mad at you. He's more mad at himself and whoever is doing this to you."

Marti flinched.

"Marti?" Casey thought of something. "Marti do you think you…could you tell me…do you know who is hitting you?"

Marti's body went stock-still, petrified with fear.

"Marti?" Casey nudged, "Is it someone in this house?"

Marti moved her head in an almost imperceptible nod, as soon as it occurred Casey was wondering if she had really seen it.

" Marti?" Casey asked again. "Marti is it George?"

Marti raised her head to meet Casey's eyes with a blank stare.


	5. Derek

Chapter 5:

Chapter 5: The Teacher wonders but she doesn't ask

Off in his own room Derek lay unmoving, staring up at his ceiling.

'How dare she!' he thought. 'How dare she even suggest that his dad was doing this to Marti. His dad loved Marti. Besides, this was a recent development so it would be much more plausible to suggest Nora as a potential suspect. It was so much more feasible that Nora was abusing his Smarti. His Smarti. All day she hadn't seemed like his Smarti. She'd been different. Ever since he had walked into her room this morning, just this morning, she'd been a complete stranger to him. And she was SCARED of him. Derek could not believe she was afraid of him. Didn't she know he would never hurt her? Of course she knew. She had to know.

Somewhere in his mind he knew though, that this fact only supported Casey's theory. It made sense that Marti would be afraid of him if Dad was abusing her. Was Casey right? Was there any possible way Casey could be right?

And that's when it hit him. As Derek lay there staring up at the ceiling he came to the most important conclusion.

It didn't matter.

It didn't matter who was abusing Marti.

The only thing that mattered was stopping it.

Was making sure Marti was never hurt again. Making sure that Marti was never again shying from HIM in fear.

For both their sakes.

He wanted his Smarti and he didn't know how much longer he could take this. Every time he saw her fear, Derek's heart broke and after only one day of this pain his heart was fractured into so many different pieces he didn't think it could ever be put back together. Derek sat up on his bead and pulled together his underlying thought, the realization he had just happened upon:

He, Derek Venturi, would do anything to make sure Marti was alright—even if it meant incriminating his own father.

"Derek! Dinner!" The voice of his step-mom sliced through his thoughts, carrying him back to reality. Derek set his shoulders and headed downstairs, resolved in his plan: He would determine whether George was abusing his daughter. He chose to selectively ignore the fact that if it was true he had absolutely no idea of what to do next.

He slid into his chair.

The dinner dance started. Plates were passed and the steady banter of Edwin and Lizzie began again. To Derek though, tonight it seemed stilted, forced, acted. He knew he was imagining it though, the tension at the table.

A foot kicked his.

His eyes jerked up to meet Casey's. They shined an apology at him, begging for forgiveness for her words earlier.

Derek looked down at his plate and then brought his eyes back up to meet those of the girl across from him.

"I forgive you" his eyes sparkled back an apology at her.

She smiled and her shoulders relaxed slightly in relief. Her foot nudged his under the table in a gesture of friendship and collaboration.

CLATTER.

The imaginary tension in Derek's head exploded around the table.

"Marti!" George growled at the little girl sitting next to him covered in food from her plate that had tipped over into her lap.

"Aw Marti," Edwin berated her good-naturedly, reaching down to pick up her plate and set it back on the table.

"No, Edwin!" George's words were like a slap in Edwin's face. He flinched back away from Marti looking confused.

When Derek heard George speak, it felt wrong to call him father now, his eyes immediately flicked over to Casey once again. She was staring back at him, her eyes wide with fear. The both of them quickly turned their gazes to Marti.

"No Edwin!" George repeated, "don't help her. Marti started this so she can pick it up." The flicker of a sneer flashed across his face as he stared sternly at the girl.

Marti whispered "Sorry Daddy."

"Yea," he said "You're six years old Marti. You need to grow up and take responsibility for your actions. You're a disappointment to this family Marti. Six years old and can't control yourself enough to keep from knocking your food off the table. Clean it up, NOW!"

Silent tears streamed down Marti's face. She slowly reached up and tried to gather all the food up onto her plate before toddling into the kitchen.

Derek growled under his breath. Was this his answer?

Again a foot slammed into Derek's under the table. Casey's eyes were warning him telling him that now was not the time. They needed more evidence.

It was killing him this not acting. But he knew Casey was right. And he knew too that this non-action was killing her too. He could see it in the set of her eyes, the grimace of her smile. But he had no time to ponder the bizzarity of the fact that he knew the emotions behind Casey's expressions because Marti reentered the room.

Dejectedly, she climbed back into her seat and reached to grab another chicken leg.

"What do you think you're doing?" George's voice was like a whip cutting across the silence.

Marti froze, her hand halfway to the chicken.

"You had your chance to eat and you ruined it. You're a big girl now Marti and big girls take responsibility for their actions. Go to your room. No more dinner for you tonight."

Marti burst into loud choking sobs and raced up the stairs to her room.

The whole table sat frozen in silence. Distantly they could hear Marti's door slam.

Silence.

That's all there was.

Everyone, Nora, Casey, Derek, Edwin and Lizzie, was in shock, staring at George.

Finally Derek growled and shoved his chair back from the table. There was murder in his eyes as he stalked up the stairs.

Their eyes followed him until he was out of sight.

Silence.

"George?" Casey was angry now, "What was that? Marti's six! She didn't know any better!"

"Yes she did. " he answered, " She got what she deserved. Besides not eating for one night is not going to kill her. It's time she learned some responsibility."

Casey's mouth dropped open in shock. She never thought she would actually be right.

"Mom are you listening to this? You can't possibly agree with him?" She turned to her mother.

"Well," Nora hesitated, looking at George and then looking guiltily down at the table, "while I agree that George may have been a little harsh…"

George shrugged his shoulders, acquiescing the point. Casey gaped.

"But Casey, he does have a point. Marti is old enough to be careful with her food and she should be punished for mistakes just as we would punish you or Derek."

"Mom!" Casey snapped, "She's SIX Mom! What is wrong with you?!" She screamed in frustration, threw her napkin down harshly in the center of the table and then bolted up the stairs.


End file.
